Fort Smith casino plan rejected
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8
By The Associated Press
Published: January 16, 2008
FORT SMITH, Ark. — The Bureau of Indian Affairs has turned down a group's request to approve a land designation that would open the way for a downtown Fort Smith casino.
The Tahlequah, OK-based United Keetoowah Band, with some 12,000 members, had proposed that the land be placed into federal trust, a required step for approval of an Indian gambling site.
But in a Jan. 4 letter, bureau Assistant Secretary Carl J. Artmann said the department completed its evaluation and decided not to accept the property into trust. Artmann concurred with the conclusions of regional director Jeanette Hanna, who cited the 92-mile distance between Fort Smith and Tahlequah, where the band is based and operates a casino.
He also noted that Gov. Mike Beebe and some residents were opposed to the project, although it has support within the city, including some members of the business community.
"There is the potential for an appeal (of the BIA decision)," United Keetoowah Band spokesman Randy Steinman said. "They will be deferring to their legal counsel about what their next steps might be. Naturally, they're disappointed but they're not devastated."
In March 2006, Bennie Westphal, chief executive officer of The Westphal Group, announced the band bought 10 acres along the Arkansas River in Fort Smith and planned to seek approval to build a $131 million casino there.
An opposition group, Friends of Fort Smith, organized mailings and petitions that were sent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Both Beebe and former Gov. Mike Huckabee opposed the casino proposal.
In July, Hanna, the regional director of the Eastern Oklahoma office of the bureau, recommended denial of the request. She also cited "jurisdictional problems" regarding other Indian tribes and "significant land-use issues." The Choctaw Nation went on record opposing the UKB application.
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If you look around there is also a lot of poor white trash here in OK, who are unemployed and overweight. And receiving some sort of govt assistance, you didnt mention them?? The Indian nations are bringing in money from gambling, and there are mainly whites inside gambling.
So if you want to use the race or sterotype then I will in return. My people were here first. We should have stopped you at the east coast and told you to go back home. Then you ran us off our lands, lied to us, broke promises, and again let whites onto land that was ours. So I think the govt, and you the tax payer owe us some.